THALONDOR: KINGDOM OF LEGENDS
by Shane Lege
A stranger washes ashore in a fantastical realm in Lege’s debut fantasy novel.
Valaric wakes up on an unknown beach, with no memory of where he is or how he got there. Eventually, he recalls that he signed up as a sailor aboard a ship, the Silver Serpent, for the purpose of seeking adventure far from home—and adventure is exactly what he’s found. Valaric is befriended by a furry winged creature he names Whisperwind, and, soon after, by Princess Arabella, who (unlike Whisperwind) can talk and therefore can give Valaric some information about where he’s ended up: Valaric is in the Kingdom of Vindoria. The elders of Vindoria interpret the marks on Valaric’s leg—left by a strange creature he encountered on the beach—as evidence that he has some role to play in the upcoming events of the kingdom. “The elders’ revelations opened a door to a new world of possibilities, unveiling a destiny that had been written in the stars,” narrates Valaric. “I was ready to embrace my role in the unfolding tale of destiny and discovery.” As evil forces threaten to descend upon his newly adopted land, can Valaric rise to the occasion and turn himself into a legend? Lege relates Valaric’s tale with infectious enthusiasm. Unfortunately, the author has a tendency to overwrite, as when Valaric lovingly gathers pieces of driftwood on the beach: “They carried the stories of the ship’s journey and its eventual fate, and now they would serve a new purpose in my quest for survival. As I cradled the wood, I couldn’t help but envision the dance of flames that would soon come to life, casting a warm and protective glow in the darkness.” The attention to sensory detail at the expense of the characters’ psychology makes reading the book feel more like playing through an open-world video game rather than reading a novel (as does the expository dialogue and the constant searching for significant items). Readers may enjoy the novel as a raw vehicle for fantasy tropes, but there’s little here that feels new or exciting.
A derivative, slow-moving fantasy epic.